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A wide range of applications requires the modeling of wave propagation phenomena in media with variable physical properties in the domain of interest, while highly accurate algorithms are needed to avoid unphysical effects. Spectral element methods (SEM), based on either a Chebyshev or a Legendre polynomial basis, have excellent properties of accuracy and flexibility in describing complex models, outperforming other techniques. In the standard SEM approach the computational domain is discretized by using very coarse meshes and constant-property elements, but in some cases the accuracy and the computational efficiency may be seriously reduced. For instance, a finely heterogeneous medium requires grid resolution down to the finest scales, leading to an extremely large problem dimension. In such problems the wavelength scale of interest is much larger but cannot be exploited in order to reduce the problem size. A poly-grid Chebyshev spectral element method (PG-CSEM) can overcome this limitation. In order to accurately deal with continuous variation in the properties, or even with small scale fluctuations, temporary auxiliary grids are introduced which avoid the need of using any finer global grid, and at the macroscopic level the wave field propagation is solved maintaining the SEM accuracy and computational efficiency.

Modeling elastic waves in complex media, with varying physical properties, require very accurate algorithms and a great computational effort to avoid nonphysical effects. Among the numerical methods the spectral elements (SEM) have a high precision and ease in modeling such problems and the physical domains can be discretized using very coarse meshes with elements of constant properties. In many cases, models with very complex geometries and small heterogeneities, shorter than the minimum wavelength, require grid resolution down to the thinnest scales, resulting in an extremely large problem size and greatly reducing accuracy and computational efficiency. In this paper, a poly-grid method (PG-CSEM) is presented that can overcome this limitation. To accurately deal with continuous variations or even small-scale fluctuations in elastic properties, temporary auxiliary grids are introduced that prevent the need to use large meshes, while at the macroscopic level wave propagation is solved maintaining the SEM accuracy and computational efficiency as confirmed by the numerical results.